What does the body's ability to destroy infectious agents known as?

The body's ability to destroy infectious agents is referred to as immunity. This term encompasses the complex biological processes and mechanisms that provide protection against pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. Immunity can be classified into two main types: innate immunity, which provides a general defense against pathogens from birth, and adaptive immunity, which develops as a response to exposure to specific pathogens.

This classification is vital as it highlights the body's sophisticated system that not only detects and responds to infections but also retains a memory of these encounters to provide faster and more effective responses in future encounters with the same pathogens. In contrast, resistance generally refers to an organism's overall ability to withstand or oppose certain diseases or infections but does not capture the specific mechanisms involved in targeting and destroying infectious agents. Sensitivity indicates how susceptible the body is to an infection, while susceptibility denotes the vulnerability of the body to being affected by infectious agents. Thus, immunity is the most accurate term to describe the body's active process of protecting itself against infections.